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Marla Landi is a beauty who dresses down for her peasant role, which in my opinion makes her all the more beautiful, and tempting. Everybody take another look at her introduction. The scene is so well-structured. Terence Fisher always knew what he was doing. We see Cecile before Watson does, as she watches him trudge along the path and become uncertain of the direction he's taking. She sits high up on a rock, barefoot with her knees spread apart and her skirt pulled up. You don't see that in Victorian England every day. When Watson espies her, and asks for the right direction, she runs into the moor, leading him toward the quicksand, and he follows. This girl is dangerous. This girl can get you killed. It is only when Stapleton, her father, summons her back that she comes reluctantly, having done her job to well. This is when Cecile finds out she led the wrong man into the quicksand. Later, she does the same same thing to Sir Henry, leading him into danger. That shot where she embraces him, and agrees to meet him later while looking over her shoulder to lock eyes with someone else off-camera, as yet unrevealed, is a classic Hammer horror moment. That eye-lock is the first hint of premeditation, and causes us to reevaluate the earlier scene with Watson. I like how she hesitates and looks to her father for an indication of what's going on, as if to say "I thought you said I was supposed to show him my legs and then lead him into the quicksand!" Landi's performance as a girl so resentful and angry that she would use her sexuality to manipulate men and to kill for revenge is entirely convincing. At first we think it's because she's a hot-blooded Spaniard, and then we realize, as she locks eyes with her father off-camera, that something else is going on.

In the commentary, Christopher Lee sounds very impressed with her.

It's a shame she did not appear in more movies. If memory serves she appears in an episode of Danger Man and was last seen on the featurette accompanying FIRST MAN INTO SPACE the DVD.

The shift from husband / wife masquerading as brother / sister to father / daughter is a small but very important improvement on the novella, and it still plays the scene. I like how the set design of the Stapleton cottage -- poor and simple -- contrasts with the rustic wealth of Baskerville Hall as Sir Henry crosses the cultural boundary into romancing the lower class. Visually, the contrast between the two places tells a story of its own, and punctuates the dialog that it's a poor life on the moor. Their hardship is as real as their resentment is homicidal. The land they bought is no good for farming, and they are doomed to poverty the rest of their lives while the rich cousin lives better down the street. So the exploitation of an old ghost story is the logical thing for them to do. Other versions of the story would put the Stapletons into a house so opulent the motivation to kill Sir Henry makes no sense.

I enjoy and appreciate other versions of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, but this version speaks to me in a way the others don't, and I think it's the best version, and one of the very best Hammer films, and one of the very best Holmes films.


Richard

What did you think it was about? a dog?
do you imagine Terence Fisher doesn't know how to tell a story?
Shot by shot this HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES is a proper piece of work.


Richard

Ted Newsom wrote:

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One or two London street exteriors would make it perfect.

I agree.
The scene of Henry Baskerville being followed down the street would have helped.
Looking out the window of 221B to Baker Street outside would have helped, too.


Richard